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25 Dec 2015

Orks Tactica - Blitza-Bommer

Greetings my fellow greenskin enthusiasts, I bid you welcome to another article in which I inform you once again that green is best! Today I'll be discussing the last of the flying death trio, the Blitza-Bommer, armed with one of the more devastating bombing weapons in any standard codex. I hope you enjoy this review!

Blitza-Bommer

Overview

The Blitza-Bommer might seem to fulfill much the same role as the Burna-Bommer at first glance, but in reality it also carves out its own niche in an Ork force due to the incredible potential of its aptly named Boom Bombs as well as the hilariously random nature of what should otherwise be a highly accurate attacker. But first, let us focus on the similarities between the Blitza-Bommer and its kit siblings; AV10 on all possible facings in addition to three hull points makes for a pathetically fragile unit that any minor form of anti-air can easily force to Jink or destroy....and yes, I'm as annoyed as you that I've had to stress this point in three consecutive articles. These things are made of paper mache, dawdle around like wet noodles and follow pretty much any other fragile stereotype you've ever read, seen or heard. Putting that aside, the Blitza-Bommer even has a big shoota and a twin-linked supa shoota much like the Burna-Bommer; the one difference here is that the big shoota on the Blitza-Bommer is not twin-linked, but this is still somewhat made up for by also sharing the useful Ballistic Skill 3 bonus applied by the Grot Gunner special rule - gaining an extra shot with each weapon on a Waaagh! turn is also a nice little bonus. The differences become more pronounced once you start to analyze the bombs unique to each flyer and the fact that the Blitza-Bommer sadly cannot purchase any skorcha missiles, though this could be seen as a balancing factor of course; a Blitza Bommer is identical in price to a Burna-Bommer armed with two skorcha missiles, so analyzing the impact of each respective bomb is key.

Rather than being a pure light to medium infantry decimation weapon, boom bombs explode with a ferocious Strength 7 AP2 Large Blast with the Armorbane special rule, instantly making them a massive threat to Terminators and other elite infantry in general while also serving to casually strip hull-points off of any vehicles that get in the line of fire. I wouldn't say they are that good at vehicle hunting as the current vehicle damage chart heavily penalizes attempts at getting Explodes results on vehicles and a single Strength 7 AP2 Armorbane hit on a vehicle is unlikely to do much other than remove one hull point as a result - heck, I recently covered this with regards to the Hunter and Stalker with much the same conclusion. Still, it goes without saying that Orks generally have problems with dealing with 2+ armor saves at range due to their criminal lack of AP2 weaponry used in the shooting phase, even though they tend to put out ridiculous amounts of Strength 8 AP3 shots. Having an incredibly accurate weapon due to the nature of bombing runs that uses an AP2 Large Blast with a really high Strength value can be a godsend for Orks that otherwise might not want to engage those heavily armored elite infantry units, but ultimately you also have to look at it from a competitive view-point; Terminators are barely common nowadays, and 2+ armor saves aren't generally seen on a unit-wide basis. This is more to do with heavily armored monstrous creatures and characters being used as fire magnets or wound tanks to save costs elsewhere and get the most efficient scoring units or damage output, and it almost goes without saying that a single-shot blast weapon is not really going to scare a monstrous creature.

This isn't to say the boom bombs aren't that good; they are amazing seeing as you will still see clumps of 2+ or 3+ armored units (mostly the latter) that will be scared to death of it, and its ability to potentially strip hull points off of vehicles gives it some small versatility in the sense that it can contribute to destroying a large target rather than being used to take it on by itself. Still, with cover being what it is I do wonder if the Burna-Bommer is the better value purchase if only because Ignores Cover on top of Strength 5 and AP4 is enough to decimate most units while being able to pack on additional firepower for the same cost. Another prominent trait the Blitza-Bommer has is a randomness that none of the other Ork flyers are prey to and it is directly related to its boom bombs; you must roll 2D6 before resolving a bombing run with potentially amusing results to follow. For eleven dice roll results, two of them are really bad; one sees the Blitza-Bommer outright destroyed and another has it and its target suffer a single Strength 9 AP2 hit, with both painfully preventing a bomb from actually being used in the attack. The others are either as normal for a bombing run or - with three of the results anyway - allow the Blitza-Bommer a free round of shooting with its big shoota and twin-linked supa shoota before the actual Shooting Phase, allowing it to fire them again in the same turn and at a different target. While this will rarely actually lead to a bad result given that the Blitza-Bommer only has two bombs, the random-nature of the rule is something that tends to be a big "no-no" for competitive play. Paying over a hundred points for a flyer that could be destroyed by a stray bullet or a strong wind that then also has the chance of blowing itself up when it makes its signature bombing run move does not scream "high end play" at all. Still, it is in-arguably the hardest hitting of the Ork flyers specifically against elite infantry, whereas the Dakkajet is more anti-flyer and anti-monstrous creature with the Burna-Bommer being a lawn-mower for those poor Xenos and Astra Militarum. If you face lots of Terminators in your area - which are surely going to be more popular with everyone starting up Horus Heresy armies nowadays - then taking a Blitza-Bommer is pretty much mandatory given how well it does against them, with the admission that anything of that mold (Toughness 5 or lower, 2+ armor saves, weak invulnerable saves, single or two-wound models) is the Blitza-Bommers' preferred prey.

How to Equip Them

Seeing as there is only one upgrade available to a Blitza-Bommer and it is the same option I've lambasted on the previous two reviews, you can safely skip this section, safe in the knowledge that you needn't spend any more points on the already appropriately decked out Blitza-Bommer. Is anyone actually reading this? Test one, test two. You know what rhymes with Trump? Dump! Haha, burn. Thank god I don't have censors or edito

Best Uses

Like the above section, this one should be fairly straight-forward; point your Blitza-Bommer at the most heavily armored non-monstrous, non-vehicle target on the board, drop your bombs and pray for success. Unlike the Burna-Bommer with its missiles, there is no real value to using the Blitza-Bommer for anything other than dropping its boom bombs; they are what defines the unit given that its secondary weapons are token additions at best. Given that Interceptor is resolved after you complete Bombing Runs and the fact that a Zooming flyer can move 36" in the Movement Phase, you should always be able to fire off at least one boom bomb before the Blitza-Bommer suffers any return damage; of course, this comes with the risks inherent in the boom bombs themselves potentially leading to the mutual destruction of both the target and the attacker. Seeing as you can't use any of these flyers as a scoring unit for any reason, positioning them aggressively to get at the rear armor of vehicles with their big shootas and supa shootas is always a good idea; as an Ork player, you want to force the opponent to take down your less valuable units to avoid your major damage-dealers such as Meganobz, Warbike death-stars and Stompas. Additionally, if there are no good targets for the Blitza-Bommer, don't be shy to either save the bombs if you expect elite infantry units to arrive later in the game by moving to a favorable position away from major enemy retaliation, or to use them against the heavier targets such as vehicles; getting lucky with a single AP2 shot that can fairly reliably penetrate AV14 is not unheard of, and ultimately getting the "ideal" damage output from a given unit in every match-up is pretty much impossible anyway.

Recommended Builds

If you didn't catch on from an earlier section of the review, this should illustrate the point perfectly;

Blitza-Bommer - The Blitza-Bommer does not need its one available upgrade and has everything it needs to perform to your expectations with its stock equipment; there is no real variation to be had here. Like almost anything with green-skin, it lacks the subtlety to be anything other than a suicidal, roving machine of destruction.

Thank you for reading this article, I hope you enjoyed it! I'm a a fan of the Blitza-Bommer despite the other two flyers generally being more easily applicable in most match-ups as far as pulling their weight or dealing with their preferred targets is concerned; I'll be blunt, who can go past AP2 Large Blasts in an Ork army? I can't! In any case, I look forward to reading your thoughts on the Blitza-Bommer and how it has performed in your games so far. Thanks again!